In addition to the costs in pain and suffering to workers and their families, workplace accidents have a major impact on your bottom line. The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index for 2010 estimates that employers nationwide pay over $1 billion per week for direct workers’ compensation costs alone.

But that’s only half the story, since costs of workplace injuries and illnesses include both direct and indirect costs. (more…)

Safety should not be viewed or stated simply as a priority, says James Roughton, Safety Professional with a MS in Safety, a CSP, CRSP, CHMM, CIT, CET, and Six Sigma Black Belt. The priorities of a company can change over time, and even on short notice, but values do not. To say that safety is a priority means that it will change based on the needs or urgencies of the moment and will not always be on the top of your priority list.

Roughton suggests 9 steps safety managers can take to make safety a greater value to management and to front-line employees and to build a stronger safety culture.

1. View and present safety as a continuous process instead of a compliance requirement. (more…)

Attention multi-family property owners/managers, painters, contractors and other members of the regulated community: EPA has published the final rule for the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (LRRP) in the August 5, 2011 edition of the Federal Register. The changes made to the LRRP go into effect on October 4, 2011.

The good news is: EPA will not require clearance and dust wipe testing!

There are several changes which will directly affect your job sites. These are summarized below. (more…)

OSHA’s intense focus and scrutiny of the residential construction industry reveals the lack of awareness and compliance amongst home improvement contractors, remodelers, builders and trades. Last year OSHA named the industry a target for enforcement and they said they will aggressively pursue contractors in this sector.

Residential contractors have never been in the cross hairs like the commercial sector. OSHA training, like OSHA 10 and 30, are usually mandated for commercial firms working on public projects. Residential contractors have not been required through enforcement to adopt the policies of the agency and have little or no experience of how to comply. The recent rash of injuries and deaths on residential work sites has led to this new focus. (more…)

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), training programs conducted during regular work hours constitute work time and must be compensated as such.

Mandatory safety training conducted outside of regular work hours (for example, on employees’ days off or before or after normal work hours) must be considered (more…)

The CDC issues the following guidance to address safety precautions that should be adhere to when responding after a tornado has struck.  With clean-up well underway in Joplin, we thought we should remind everyone of some helpful hint to stay safe.

Injury may result from the direct impact of a tornado, or it may occur afterward when people walk among debris and enter damaged buildings. A study of injuries after a tornado in Marion, Illinois, showed that 50 percent of the tornado-related injuries were suffered during rescue attempts, cleanup, and other post-tornado activities. Nearly a third of the injuries resulted from stepping on nails. Other common causes of injury included falling objects and heavy, rolling objects. (more…)

OSHA can’t send people responsible for workplace safety to jail. But they can refer cases to local prosecutors who are able to seek prison time. That’s what happened in this case, and now two men will be locked up.

Sam Hyung Goo Shim, owner of roofing company California C&R, and his foreman, Jwa Young Kim, have both been sentenced to county jail in connection with the January 2008 death of an employee. Shim will serve one year. Kim will serve at least six months of a one-year sentence.

Antonio Martinez was one of several employees working on a roofing project at a four-story apartment building in San Francisco. As he was working along the roof’s edge, Martinez fell 38 feet to the sidewalk below. The fall killed him. (more…)

Earlier this year, a review panel addressed OSHA’s ability to issue fines for not having injury records that date back from more than the current year. Now OSHA has used its new authority to level an additional $40,000 in fines to one company.

OSHA inspected Thomasville Lumber Co. in Alabama in December 2010 as part of its national emphasis program to prevent workplace amputations. (more…)

US Department of Labor’s OSHA proposes more than $243,000 in fines against Lewiston, Maine, contractor for egregious fall hazards, other violations.

Below is a new release from OSHA regarding a roofing contractor that has a history of ignoring OSHA’s citations and has failed to implement a safety program to protect their workers.  I can assure you that they will have little if any luck reducing these citations to continue to stay in business.  The investment of a safety program would be roughly 1% of the total citations that they are facing.  Give us a call to find out how you can eliminate your exposure to OSHA citations, protect your workers, and lower your insurance costs today. (more…)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced a three month phase-in period to allow residential construction employers to come into compliance with the Agency’s new directive to provide residential construction workers with fall protection.
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